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14 Va. J. Int'l L. 653 (1973-1974)
The United States and the Crisis in Human Rights

handle is hein.journals/vajint14 and id is 663 raw text is: The United States and the Crisis in Human Rights* Louis HENKIN** Human rights is now in common currency in the languages of many nations and in the language of relations between nations. International law and international institutions designed to protect human rights have been growing steadily for thirty years. There is now an imposing edifice of decla- rations, resolutions, and formal treaties on human rights generally and on selected, particular rights. The U.N. has commissions and committees, subcommissions and subcommittees, with considerable jurisdiction. There are regional laws and institutions to supplement the universal effort and some of it, notably in Western Europe, includes a judicial tribunal and other developed devices of accepted effectiveness. Few would say, however, that human rights are alive and well in all or most countries. Few would insist that the international effort has brought a substantial improvement in the welfare of many human beings. Even its staunch supporters have noted that international protection has faltered, perhaps relapsed;' that there is in fact a crisis in human rights. The reasons for that crisis, however, are not commonly understood; the respon- sibility for it is not fairly attributed, and many of the possible remedies are misconceived. This article is concerned, in particular, with the role of the United States in that crisis and with the remedies which American friends of human rights might pursue. The United States has been second to no other major country in the international effort to establish, promote, and maintain human rights. While the concept of human rights draws on older roots, American traditions and ideas helped to give it shape and particular con- tent, and American predispositions were prominent in making human rights a matter of international political concern. Even before 1945, Ameri- can officials and non-governmental organizations stressed the relevance of human rights to international peace and to other common international purposes, and insisted that international law and institutions to protect such rights were proper and necessary; their efforts helped enshrine human * Part of this article was prepared for delivery at the McGill-Intemational Colloquium on Judaism and Human Rights, April 1974. ** Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Columbia University. A.B., 1937, Yeshiva College; LL.B., 1940, Harvard University; L.H.D., 1963, Yeshiva. Presi- dent, United States Institute of Human Rights. 1. See, e.g., Bilder, Rethinking International Human Rights: Some Basic Questions, 1969 WVis. L. REv. 171; Liskofsky, International Protection of Human Rights, in WOaL PoLMcs AND THE JEWISH CONDITON 277-328 (L. Henkin ed. 1972).

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